The generational meme war is totally out of hand at this point, and honestly I’m over it.
It was fun for a while, but now it’s just sad and frustrating. There’s so much that’s so vital that feels as though it’s impossible to communicate.
What can we do?
Gen Z and Millennials. What’s Something You Wish The Older Generations Understood?
by inAskReddit
I suppose at the very least we can leave our thoughts on Reddit. Do a little venting. Like these folks did.
1. Knowledge
Just because I know where/how to find the answer to something doesn’t mean I “think I’m smarter than you.”
I’m just trying to save both of us from wasting time.
– WatchTheBoom
2. The cost of living
How much college and housing really costs compared to when they bought those things.
And it’s just a domino effect, too. The less reasonable college is, the harder it is to buy a house with all your loans.
And both of those things make it very difficult to have children.
– tinypiecesofyarn
3. It’s not a matter of hard work
It doesn’t matter how much I work. I busted my a** for my old boss for years, and when I decided to leave he tried to tell me a story about how when he was my age he worked as much as I did and bought an apartment COMPLEX as a side hustle.
I replied I would love to do that, and asked for a raise to which he declined.
Older generations love to spout how new generations hate to work, we don’t hate to work, but we want to actually enjoy our f**king money.
– XoeLoL
4. We’re grown ups
Millennials are grown a** adults. Literally the youngest conceivable cut point for millennials (ability to candidly remember pre-9/11 at least for US in my opinion) is in the latter half of their mid 20s.
The oldest possible cut point is in their early 40s.
– HitEmWithDatKTrain
5. Participation trophies weren’t our idea
You gave us the f**king participation trophies although I agree they’re dumb.
You were the snowflakes who couldn’t let your precious little angel grapple with the fact that he won’t be one of the like 500 NBA players one day.
– HitEmWithDatKTrain
6. Your standards of evidence are totally hypocritical
Throughout our schooling, we had to write research papers using online sources, and our teachers really stressed the importance of being able to identify a credible source before citing it.
Don’t be offended when you send us an article from Americanpatrioteagle.ru and we dismiss it outright.
– B**ch_Tuna
7. The dangers of the past are not a model for the present
Yeah, we know. You rode in the back window of a car that had no seatbelts, you got measles, rode bikes with no helmets, and still turned out just fine.
Just because you happened to be in the group of people who survived doesn’t mean any of these were a good idea.
– etoiles-du-nord
8. It’s not weird to know the stuff you were brought up in
My ability to find the power button on a computer does not make me anymore a genius than your grasp of the dewey decimal system makes you a genius.
– glarbknot
9. I don’t need directions
Stop telling me directions, I’ll just use GPS.
No really, just give me the end address. Stop. STOP TELLING ME DIRECTIONS. I’M NOT LISTENING TO YOU. JUST GIVE ME THE ADDRESS AND I’LL USE GPS.
But they just keep going “and then at the 3rd light, go left, go straight for about 3.5 miles, then make a right at the farmhouse…”
– Omniwing
10. There’s a drain
You can hate your f**king job and be sad just because you think of the future.
Once had a small talk with my parents. My job is draining and I can’t see how it can get me to anywhere. My mental health deteriorated since university. Become a little bit negative and stop joking around like a clown during the conversation, their reply?
“I don’t understand why you can hate your job so much unless you are slacking. Why would you choose to be sad instead of being happy” Thanks mom, really helpful.
– thechoosennoob
11. We really don’t want a lot
My worst times come when I have unexpected emergency financial issues that saving money out of every single paycheck of my 8-5 40 hr/week job isn’t able to help me with.
I break down and literally cry “I did what I was supposed to”.
– Starglema
12. Jobs aren’t easy
That you can’t just walk outside and get jobs stuck in your hair or on the soles of your shoes anymore, also that minimum wage jobs will in no way allow you to earn enough money to get on the property ladder.
If you do manage to land a job you have to jump through a billion hoops such as uploading a CV as well as filling in a form asking for the exact same information that’s included in your CV, group assessments and all that carry on. It’s not enough to just hand a CV over anymore and get an interview.
Even if you know how to game the system getting a job is bloody difficult. Maybe back in the 60s you could afford to support a family with a full time job flipping burgers, but not anymore.
– Concerned-Pineapple
13. The world is changing
That the world is not the same as it was in the 80s/90s when they were our age.
Advice that would have been helpful then might not be as helpful now.
– Read_Maximum
14. Mental healthcare is important
Just because we’re more aware of our mental health and allow ourselves to feel what we want to feel, it doesn’t make us weak or “snowflakes”.
If anything, it makes us better at coping with, well, everything!
– cwt48
15. We’re losing hope
There was hope in your time. You felt like you could change the world.
Nowadays, our economy is f**ked, our environment is f**ked, our privacy is gone, our governments are pitting us against one and other, and the planet is going to kill us off within the next century regardless of what we do about it.
So don’t look down on us as “weak” or call us “entitled” if we’re a little p**sed off and/or depressed about it, ok?
– Mad-Mad-Mad-Mad-Mike
And on that very cheery note, we’ll close it out.
What’s something you would add to this list?
Tell us in the comments.